TP-Link Moves to Assemble Routers In the US Following Import Ban (engadget.com) 114
TP-Link plans to begin assembling routers in Mississippi as early as 2027 after the FCC banned imports of new foreign-made consumer routers over security concerns. Engadget reports: The company has signed a letter of intent with manufacturer Key Tronic and, pending approval from regulators, TP-Link says stateside assembly of its routers could start at a Mississippi production line as soon as early 2027.
Once things are up and running, Wi-Fi 8 routers are expected to be among the first TP-Link products that Key Tronic assembles. TP-Link claims that the agreement is part of its "long-term effort to accelerate US investment in high-tech manufacturing and job creation, designing and assembling next-generation products for American consumers here on American soil."
The company said it will still have to source components from outside the US. "Many [components] are just not available from a domestic source, and this is not a TP-Link issue," TP-Link's corporate affairs officer Steve Kovsky told PC Mag. "This is an issue for all manufacturers that are trying to onshore manufacturing."
Once things are up and running, Wi-Fi 8 routers are expected to be among the first TP-Link products that Key Tronic assembles. TP-Link claims that the agreement is part of its "long-term effort to accelerate US investment in high-tech manufacturing and job creation, designing and assembling next-generation products for American consumers here on American soil."
The company said it will still have to source components from outside the US. "Many [components] are just not available from a domestic source, and this is not a TP-Link issue," TP-Link's corporate affairs officer Steve Kovsky told PC Mag. "This is an issue for all manufacturers that are trying to onshore manufacturing."
Low Cost State (Score:2)
Is this a case of on-shoring assembly, or off-shoring Mississippi...?
Multiplier effect to wages paid to a worker. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Multiplier effect to wages paid to a worker. (Score:4)
If a factory opens in a less prosperous state isn't that a good thing? Keep in mind that there is a multiplier effect to wages paid to a worker. That worker will in turn spend money locally that helps support additional jobs. That factory sounds like a way to help a region reduce poverty.
Yes - I think it can be a good thing, and can give jobs to people who are unemployed. I don't think it is intrinsically a bad thing.
But - It is not as clear cut as "[...] products for American consumers here on American soil.". The idea is what is sometimes referred to as "near-shoring" - a sort of compromise between off-shoring and on-shoring. It does have the benefit of new jobs in those "near-shore" poor states, but it tends to keep the glamorous jobs firmly situated in the wealthy states, and there by reinforcing the reputation of both states.
And if you are moving from off-shoring to near-shoring, then of course you have to go and tell all those off-shore workers that they no longer have a job. If the firing manager is a keen America Firster, then he can probably console himself pretty quickly about that, but a "people are people" person might need a little longer.
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Most of the parts still come from China. The "factory" in this country is going to install two screws on the plastic case and slap an Assembled in USA sticker on the box.
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Most of the parts still come from China. The "factory" in this country is going to install two screws on the plastic case and slap an Assembled in USA sticker on the box.
True, but the monies involved in assembly and testing still gets spent domestically and the multiplier benefit is domestic, rather than in China. It's a first step.
Re: Multiplier effect to wages paid to a worker. (Score:2)
Lol testing
This story is about TP-Link. There's no testing.
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Lol testing
This story is about TP-Link. There's no testing.
Only thing worth testing will be how well it runs a proper OpenWRT.
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It's a sidestep for a policy win for the current administration that things are "made here". Even though all the rationale for the foreign made router ban was about device compromise (which these things are going to be made in China for all parts that count including the firmware, and will continue to be.)
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I was thinking pretty much the same thing, just 1 less screw.
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Yeah it's not like their school system is outperforming California's. Oh wait [city-journal.org]. . .
Re: Multiplier effect to wages paid to a worker. (Score:2)
If said factory assembles the units from imported components using robots and are loaded with software made by AI and offshore workers then the few workers that will be employed won't make much difference.
What a brave new world.
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If said factory assembles the units from imported components using robots and are loaded with software made by AI and offshore workers then the few workers that will be employed won't make much difference.
Lets accept your scenario for the sake of argument. The robots still require support and maintenance and the be money spent domestically, and the multiplier effect experienced locally. Its still an improvement, and its just a first step.
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If a factory opens in a less prosperous state isn't that a good thing?
I have a modest proposal: Let's build factories to manufacture glass panes in less prosperous states and then go around smashing windows to create demand for their products. What could possibly go wrong?
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"If a factory opens in a less prosperous state isn't that a good thing?"
If they were going to do productive work then it would be possible for the net value to be greater than the cost of putting that work in that location, though not guaranteed.
But we all know this isn't productive work; it's to work around a pointless import ban. All TP-Link needs is to beat the prior supplier surplus after deadweight loss.
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The entire rationale of the foreign made router ban was that it was a national security risk, not economics. Having some basic assembly occur in the US while the ownership of foreign companies remains and critical components are overseas, including TP-Link still making the firmware out of China - having some assembly jobs in Mississippi does nothing to solve the purported reason for the ban.
But let's mo
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Americans can spend their money to improve CCP controlled China, or they can spend their money to improve the USA. Small easy steps are just first steps, just as moving manufacturing overseas started with small easy steps.
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If a factory opens in a less prosperous state isn't that a good thing?.
No. These are bad jobs. Assembly line work: put the circuit board in the case, click the case together, insert screws, stick on the rubber feet, wrap in plastic bag, put into box, shrink-wrap box, stack on pallet. Low skill, low pay, crappy work, done by people who are easily replaced when the arthritis kicks in.
There is also additional transport and warehousing jobs: hauling parts across the USA from the port where they were received from China, and then distributing the finished goods back out to variou
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If a factory opens in a less prosperous state isn't that a good thing?.
No. These are bad jobs.
No job is worse.
Low skill, low pay, crappy work
Better than no pay for someone who majored in sports in high school.
hauling parts across the USA from the port where they were received from China
Irrelevant, the finished goods would have come from China as well. And modest though it may be, money spent in the USA is better than money spent in China. Same for the multiplier.
likely to be automated in the future
Better automated in the USA than China, money spent in the USA rather than China, multiplier, etc.
(why start a career with an upcoming endpoint?)
A finite non-zero number of paychecks is better than zero paychecks.
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I grew up in these parts of the US. There are jobs -mostly in farming and industrial production. A bad assembly line job is worse. It is attractive because it is quick money, and a year-round paycheck. It is still worse than the other jobs.
It is not even going to add a measurable number of jobs. They are contracting the assembly to an existing plant that has excess capacity.
Hauling multiple trips to an assembly plant and then out to distributors is less efficient and produces more pollution than haulin
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It is still worse than the other jobs.
I'm arguing it is better than no job, not those other jobs.
It is not even going to add a measurable number of jobs.
And that is the 'tragedy of the commons' argument made when small job sites moved overseas decades ago. However it works in both directions. These small jobs sites can eventually add up to something significant.
Hauling multiple trips to an assembly plant and then out to distributors is less efficient and produces more pollution than hauling once from the port to the distributors -not irrelevant.
Not in the long run, because it is part of a larger process. Re-shoring manufacturing lowers pollution by moving the activity to the USA or EU where environmental regulations will be enforced. Unlike China which is the #1 polluter in the worl
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This isn't a new factory opening; per the letter of intent linked in the summary, TP-Link is contracting with Keytronic, which already has a factory in Corinth, MS, to do the assembly. Keytronic's whole business is around taking these sorts of jobs for other companies which, for whatever reason, don't want to do things like this in-house.
It still creates additional hours of employment.
Its still a tragedy of the commons sort of issue. When we shipped these small task overseas we thought it too small to have a real effect. However they added up and had a very real effect. The same works in reverse. The small little wins will add up just like the small little losses added up in past decades.
Re: Low Cost State (Score:2)
If any place needed some new entry level jobs after decades of screwing up its public education system, it's Mississippi.
So, a $0.50 step at the very end? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, great win. Probably will charge customers $10 more for that "Assembled in the USA!" line on the box.
Re:So, a $0.50 step at the very end? (Score:5, Insightful)
Years ago I remember a sleeping bag company going out of business because they couldn't compete with the larger companies. But at their peak they made something like a third of the sleeping bag sold in the country and they did that with technology from maybe 20 years ago and about 120 or 130 employees.
We should be talking more about how automation has hollowed out the middle class but I don't think anyone has a solution for it. It would be one thing if magic machines automated all the work away but that's not what they did. A shitload of jobs have been automated but a lot of people still need to work. But we are rapidly approaching the time when we have a large population of people for who there is absolutely no useful work. At the same time there's a population of people who we really do need to do work and there isn't a lot of overlap between the two. The people whose jobs got replaced by machines aren't really capable of doing all that much more. They didn't suddenly become super genius mathematicians or doctors or something.
So we're going to basically have a rather nasty fight between a shitload of people who we don't have any place for in society and a shitload of people who are needed to do what work is left. And I do not see how that fight resolves itself especially with the Epstein class egging both sides on
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Also modern factory automation means that there won't be any jobs.
Yes. Except for the people that wield actual tools or forklift boxes into trucks (and do not earn a lot), the few remaining good jobs are easy to off-shore.
Forklift drivers will get offshored (Score:4, Insightful)
A very small number of jobs requiring physical presence will continue to exist but they will pay very very little because there will be so many desperate people fighting for the small amount of work that is left. It's supply and demand and there's a huge supply of labor and did not much demand.
We could create more demand through government spending but good fucking walk with that. Because we allowed the government to become so hopelessly corrupt while we indulged in moral panics and freaking out about drag queens and trans girls the money from that just goes straight to the top. A good example is one of the Trump officials funneled half a billion dollars to a Trump donor that she was asking to pay off her credit card bills.
When people are faced with this corruption they just throw their hands up and say everybody is corrupt so who cares who I vote for but then they turn around and vote for right-wing politicians who are openly corrupt every single time. And good luck getting somebody to understand the nuanced difference between using the occasional insider stock tip versus sending half a billion dollars of corrupt contracts to your buddies...
The real problem is about 60% of the country thinks and operates at the level of a 12 year old and I don't know what the fuck you do about that. That was fine when most people were just dirt farmers but it just doesn't fly in a modern mechanized society.
Re: Forklift drivers will get offshored (Score:3)
AI driven / autonomous fork lifts are likely additions to a new factory. Fork lifts have been drive by wire for many years now, adding a few kilodollars of inference hardware and sensors is cheaper than paying a fork lift driver.
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Autonomous forklifts have been a thing in factories for quite a while now. The AI driven stuff is being added to save money on sensors.
I know, but I'm constantly getting told (Score:2)
On a project I had a couple of Filipinos take my job. If you're in White collar work long enough it's going to happen. They couldn't rea
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On a project I had a couple of Filipinos take my job. If you're in White collar work long enough it's going to happen. They couldn't really do it but the company in question didn't particularly care. I moved on to another role. But I remember one of them telling me that doing the work was better than their alternatives and they implied that their alternatives were prostitution since they were a girl...
Yep. The people taking the jobs are victims too. All so that some already rich assholes can get even richer.
I think remote piloting is the bigger worry (Score:2)
But I also don't think we talk enough about how modern high-speed internet makes it possible to pilot vehicles remotely overseas. Waymo has been caught doing that. When they are actually under oath like they were to Congress they admit that when the cars are in even slightly difficult situations a human driver takes over from a call center
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You can't really pilot vehicles over the air. It's not like flying an RC plane or anything like that, no matter how highspeed your connection at the back office, the vehicles' bandwidth is not great, the latency is high, and the reliability of the connection is low.
A remote human can only assist them. One person can manage a fleet of robotic vehicles, because they are autonomous enough to react to immediate issues, and a human can juggle a few at once to get them unstuck. And we've gotten to a point were mo
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Also modern factory automation means that there won't be any jobs.
Yes. Except for the people that wield actual tools or forklift boxes into trucks (and do not earn a lot), the few remaining good jobs are easy to off-shore.
The box loading and unloading is getting automated too. There are self-driving forklifts now, and while some of them use a single remote operator to watch over a warehouse full, that's still pairing down a job that used to take between four to ten people to one or two. We're fast approaching the time when the owner class can finally achieve the dream of no longer needing a workforce filled with people. Let's see if they figure out they won't have customers if they don't pay most of the population before it
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Yes. The CEO-class tries to get rid of all workers that they can get rid of. That this ultimately means no consumers and society stops working is apparently too complex an idea for them.
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We should be talking more about how automation has hollowed out the middle class
Since when was factory line manufacturing a middle class role? I mean the middle class has been hollowed out, but for different reasons.
No useful work for a large population? (Score:3)
This has always been the thing of science fiction (Star Trek universe being a great example). There's this idea that humanity will automate and invent so much technology that nobody has any work left to do.
In realty? Nobody on the planet has ever reached this point before in history, to prove it really happens.
All I *do* know is that in my own life experience, EVERY time I use a new tool or gadget that promises to save me time and make my life easier? Whatever time it saves is immediately claimed someplace
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Probably will charge customers $10 more for that "Assembled in the USA!" line on the box.
Ouch! Yeah, that's really gonna hurt my pocketbook in a world where $10 isn't even enough to get lunch out.
You must be a frequenter of freakishly pauper networking gear.
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Somebody's got to put the last screw in the box, after all! But hey, it happens in the good-old USA!
No point (Score:1)
They'll still have the "report to the Cyberspace Administration of China" firmware
Sam Knows (Score:2)
Now defunct Sams Knows program use to use TP-Link as a white box in the US
Cybersecurity or bringing a few jobs stateside? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Cybersecurity or bringing a few jobs stateside (Score:3)
"The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned imports of new, foreign-made consumer wireless routers due to severe national security, supply chain, and cybersecurity risks."
False. That was done by the DoD.
"They already say that they will need to import components. Furthermore, is sounds like they are just assembling the devices here, not manufacturing them. Are they importing the PCBs then just putting them into other imported boxes here? Surely nobody would think that doing this somehow mitigates in
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Routers ought to be removed from WiFi, but there is a strong reason why they aren't (and thus won't be).
There are good open source router/firewalls available, and are easily updated/upgraded. Which is why I suggested the WiFi ought to be a separate device.
Proprietary hardware/software solutions are the problem. Unable to replace the OS/Firmware we are buying a lock-in that we have no control over.
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Routers ought to be removed from WiFi, but there is a strong reason why they aren't (and thus won't be).
wat
There are good open source router/firewalls available, and are easily updated/upgraded. Which is why I suggested the WiFi ought to be a separate device.
Well, I'm not against that I guess, but it's not a very specific requirement. Are you requesting that all routers implement WiFi through expansion cards? That would drive up costs slightly, but it's certainly doable. A lot of them are built that way now, though it's usually not the cheapest ones.
Proprietary hardware/software solutions are the problem. Unable to replace the OS/Firmware we are buying a lock-in that we have no control over.
Sure, I agree. But that's also a bundle of very complicated arguments. For example, right now there are power limits and frequency restrictions, and intentional jamming is illegal. A lot of radio devices are lock
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We get it. You made a fool of yourself,
You get another chance to be a dipshit and you take it. What a clueless fucknut.
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Did antone ever tell you that you whine like a little bitch?
Who's antone, your daddy? Nice work there, sport. Not that I didn't know you were triggered by being shown up already.
Re: Cybersecurity or bringing a few jobs statesid (Score:2)
It's a lot more like you've never seen a press release saying the department of war would decide which routers for approved, despite it existing and us having at least two full discussions about it here.
Re: Cybersecurity or bringing a few jobs stateside (Score:4, Informative)
"The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned imports of new, foreign-made consumer wireless routers due to severe national security, supply chain, and cybersecurity risks."
False. That was done by the DoD.
False. The DoD banned imports of new, foreign-made consumer wireless routers due to claims of national security, supply chain, and cybersecurity risks.
There's no evidence that crappy consumer-grade routers with firmware written by contractors to hit a specific set of bullet points on a spec sheet are going to be any more secure merely because the low-quality firmware was installed on the devices at a factory in the United States. The national security risk is a total farce. And the supply chain problem is still a supply chain problem even if it is assembled in the United States, because few (if any) of the components inside it are made in the United States, nor do U.S. manufacturers exist for most of those parts.
So what you actually have is a lunatic executive branch leader whose tariffs got thrown out by the Supreme Court who then weaponized the DoD and the FCC to raise the price of many electronics goods, despite no evidence that doing so will actually create any short-term or long-term improvements in the near-total lack of U.S. component manufacturing (which for silicon parts is itself dependent on foreign silicon wafer manufacturing, because U.S. manufacturers consume far more silicon wafers than U.S. manufacturing can produce, though ironically, most of the sand that goes into them was mined in the U.S.).
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False. The DoD banned imports of new, foreign-made consumer wireless routers due to claims of national security, supply chain, and cybersecurity risks.
I sit {corrected,in agreement}.
ironically, most of the sand that goes into them was mined in the U.S.
Make America grade again?
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It's weird that you couldn't admit that you were wrong
It's absolutely hilarious that you can't understand that everyone is on the same page here but you.
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Being fully made in America doesn't mitigate cybersecurity risks either. The NSA is one of the biggest risks, and is based in the US. The US is no more immune to buggy, lowest cost contractor software than anywhere else.
If you want a reasonably secure router get something like a GL.iNET that is just running OpenWRT with a skin. They support running vanilla OpenWRT if you want to. Then open it up (a few screws) and check there are no embedded cellular modems.
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I would have thought the potential security issues revolve around the software running on the hardware rather than hardware. Moving the hardware manufacturing to the USA is not going to fix that problem.
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It is primarily a firmware issue though. While it could be a hardware issue who is going to bother with that when you are one firmware update from having your router controlled by a foreign government. Add an auto update feature for the firmware and you are good to go.
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Neither (Score:2)
It is possible that the companies in question will just wait it out and see if Trump loses in 2028.
But with the Trump administration it's always about soliciting bribes.
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Neither of the above. The FCC was afraid of China (formally based on their announcements), while basically no models of router were manufactured or assembled in China (they are all from Taiwan or Malaysia), so the cybersecurity thing is just false and pandering to a base that is looking for Strongman Trump to do something.
The jobs thing was not really part of any announcement, but it's also irrelevant since such factories are highly automated and an entire assembly line for routers can be manned by people c
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China remains the threat, not the company in which it is manufactured, because TP-Link is a Chinese company.
While you are right, TP-Link isn't the only one which was targeted and that sort of makes your point moot. The FCC didn't block TP-Link, they blocked all foreign produced routers, regardless of source of product or company involved. Even American companies got involved.
It's pure pandering.
Why moving manufacturing to the US matters is that in the US the facility is on US soil, so federal authorities can legally conduct unannounced physical audits.
There is nothing a federal authority can audit on a US *assembly* plant they can't also audit by buying a router or requesting the code. You have an over inflated view of auditability (and capability of authorities). You c
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Unfair trade practice (Score:3)
Trump would be calling it unfair if the USA was an exporter of WiFi routers and other countries were banning them.
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Trump calls it unfair when his McDonalds delivery driver doesn't buy something from Trump. The trade imbalance between Trump and McDonalds made me wonder why has hasn't tariffed them yet.
Probably (Score:3)
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Bingo. NOTHING will be made here except maybe the cardboard boxes, but even that is doubtful. How is snapping a motherboard into a plastic case and slapping a sticker on it going to benefit us or make the device more trusted or secure in any way?
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How
Production and shipping can be halted and the component inventory can be seized as evidence and the staff are subject to US law. All the FCC or DOD or whomever needs is a court order and some cops to drive to the site; no need to involve DHS or the State Department or shipping companies or longshoreman unions or any other bullshit. No need worry about all the angry senators and their foreign masters when tearing apart a dozen cargo containers on the docks and causing collateral damage to unrelated parties
Re: Probably (Score:2)
You're acting like this isn't how the law already works. This is how things are built "in the USA" now. Several of the cars being built here are only actually assembled here, from well over 50% imported content. Subaru is shipping so many completed engines here that simply reusing the packaging material three times before discarding it saves them over a million dollars a year.
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They might pick-and-place here ro fool the regulators and politicians.
Truly a kakistocracy.
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That's also how many car manufacturers avoid duties here in Europe.
Errr no, that is yadda yaddering away the huge complexities of vehicle supply chains. The reality is different countries have different industrial expertise which results in vehicle components and assemblies travelling multiple places before being complete. That's the norm for heavy industry*. A better example for you would have been the iPhone.
*During Brexit there was an analysis of the Mini Cooper production line. They followed metal from the source (China) to the UK, to the Czech republic, to Poland, bac
Re: Probably (Score:2)
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That's also how many car manufacturers avoid duties here in Europe.
Note they've apparently closed the chicken tax loophole so that's not happening any more. The last vehicles which did it were Nissan NV200s, which weren't sold through normal channels. They didn't let Ford do it with Transits at the same time, possibly because they were sold through dealerships, or maybe due to volume.
Re: Probably (Score:2)
Er, meant to say, that's not happening in the USA any more. Although given the other things happening now anything is possible
Ah the ecosystem excuse (Score:1)
Well, in the automotive industry, which never fully off-shored, there are plenty of domestic suppliers in places like Alabama and Tennessee, where the factories have always been.
There were plenty of domestic electronics suppliers back in the 70s and 80s when Macs and IBM PCs and peripherals were mostly assembled domestically too. The final assembly went chasing slave labor overseas and surprise surprise the supply chain here withered away (or off-shored, too).
In aerospace where off-shoring is flat-out illeg
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Brazil has large tariffs on imported electronics.
It is amusing that in 250 years of the USA no one has said anything about this supposed trade imbalance until a few years ago. Why did republicans let it get this bad?
Re: Ah the ecosystem excuse (Score:1)
Republicans used to be protectionists until the middle of 20th century. Milton Friedman convinced a lot of people there were no downsides to outsourcing so long as the quarterly numbers were good. Dude even had the chutzpah to say it's okay to let the defense industry wither away because "steel can be stockpiled."
He was certainly influential. But now that I'm older and wiser, he's the poster child for why economists should be treated with all the respect that practioners of voodoo are due.
Re: Ah the ecosystem excuse (Score:2)
No, just right wing economists. History has demonstrated that Keynes was right all along.
The problem with right wing economists like Friedman is that they started with the conclusion they wanted (let the rich do whatever they want) and then created all these absurd theories to try and justify that conclusion.
Firmware? (Score:2)
Just the assembly? (Score:2)
TP-Link Moves to Assemble Routers In the US Following Import Ban
And will all the chips and software software be built and written in the U.S. too?
'Cause it doesn't really seem like the assembly is the (alleged) security problem.
Now, NSA approved (Score:2)
The point isn't creating jobs, creating a local supply chain, or creating property that US billionaires can own. It's about creating leverage over content. To be precise, it's about creating back-doors, so the government can abuse its own people.
Well, which one do we care about? (Score:2)
assembled isnt the issue (Score:2)
And the sl firmware is (Score:2)
Coded up where? Still has Chinese security. That's what matters
"assemble" (Score:2)
Order from China:
-Plastic case top
-Plastic case bottom
-Circuit board
-Rubber feet
-Screws
Assemble in America.
Stupid measure to get around a stupid rule. Now we have to find American workers who are willing to assemble these things for shit wages. It is semi-skilled labor (assembly line work) + warehouse work + domestic shipping & logistics.
It is not improving the product or the nation, but it costs more.
Wired routers FTW (Score:2)
I keep hoping this business of politicization of FCC certification will get more vendors to produce wired routers without radios.
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They are the new Linksys. Cheap but reliable and available routers for the masses. Some of their models support OpenWRT so you don't have to deal with their proprietary firmware.
One bad thing they did recently is their Deco lineup, which can only be configured through an Android or iOS "app". There is a web page but the features are limited I don't even think you can change the IP address. But otherwise I was impressed by their support, after going to 3-4 levels of script followers, I was able to reach comp
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Avoid the Fiesta crap too, as that's cloud only.
But yes, I generally agree with your summary, and note that 312 (!) of their devices are capable of running OpenWRT (https://toh.openwrt.org/?view=normal&brand=TP-Link)
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Phone app configuration only?
Pretty much, unfortunately. I was quite shocked to discover this as well. Exact model is Deco X50, in case you want to avoid. There is a web page, but it has almost no function. I think you can update the firmware from a file, but not configure the WiFi SSID.
Granted, for most IoT devices, phone app config is the way to go, since they can just clone the phone's WiFi SSID/password.
I'd still pick a web page (or telnet or whatever) over a cloud-based phone app any day. I can enter my WiFi password myself, I will save more time than having to figure out what crappy name they chose for the app. Mitsubishi heatpump is called "kumo clo
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I can't speak to your imaginary political bias, but they are cheap and they work.
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Same things conservatives love I'm guessing: cheap, semi-FOSS-friendly, and with some advanced features that other router and Wifi-hub makers are actively removing or never implemented to begin with.
I have one TP Link thing in active use, one of those Wifi APs that hangs from the ceiling and looks like a smoke alarm rather than an Australian spider. First AP I've ever had that gives a consistent signal across the entire house. Are there others out there that can do the same thing? Probably! Do they cost und
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This would be a great argument if your LG smart TV wasn't doing that already.
Truth is you don't actually need your router to be the thing that spies on you. Any device hooked up to your network capable of listening to network packets can do it. Right now there is infinitely more evidence that LG is spying on you than TP-Link, because there's zero evidence of the latter, and plenty of evidence of the former.
(Also the TP-Link stuff doesn't have microphones in it.)
Re: Onshore? Firmware is the problem. (Score:2)
I never connected my LG TV to any network, you insensitive clod! Nobody has yet caught it exfiltrating any data via any random open networks either, only that it connects to them, and there are no such networks around me anyway.
But my router, well, that's definitely on the network...